The broadcast of the ECOFIN meeting live on the web yesterday (Tuesday 11 July) was a welcome innovation in transparency within the EU, but there is some way to go before it becomes must-see TV.

The agreement is that meetings of the Council will be open when it is considering legislation that is subject to co-decision. There is more to this than meets the eye.

I accept that you wouldn’t necessarily expect watching a group of men in suits having a conversation round a table to make the best viewing but the approach adopted by the Council so far misses even the lowest expectations. Why is this?

It’s not because of the camera angles or the cast of characters (although maybe some changes there might help a little) but really because we’re not actually being shown theaction that really matters.